GALATIANS 3:5-14 | THE MIRACLE OF SALVATION
Pastor Rich Moeller
Galatians : No Turning Back • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 46:54
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TEXT: GALATIANS 3:5-14 | THE MIRACLE OF SALVATION
TEXT: GALATIANS 3:5-14 | THE MIRACLE OF SALVATION
INTRO
INTRO
EXPLANATION: Last week, we saw as Paul finished v.5 by asking a question to these Galatian believers
EXPLANATION: Last week, we saw as Paul finished v.5 by asking a question to these Galatian believers
He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?
“Did God give you the Spirit and save you because of your good works and deeds, or by faith in Christ?”
It has been the primary battle Paul has been fighting throughout his book.
We saw starting in chapter 1 that there were religious Jewish leaders who had come on the scene trying to add works for salvation.
And then we saw last week that they were also adding works after salvation in v.3.
Paul’s doubling down on things with his question in v.5.
But may we not miss what he says about what God does in that verse.
Paul says, “What God has done in you… don’t forget that it is a miracle.”
The Greek word that is used here in is a familiar word that we find throughout Scripture.
In is the Greek word “Dynamis”
It is translated in other places as “power”
It is where we get our english word “dynamite.”
It is this “dynamite miracle” that changes everything.
APPLICATION: You know, something has happened when you come to the place that you believe that either there is something you can do to obtain eternal life, or there is something you can do to obtain more of God’s favor.
APPLICATION: You know, something has happened when you come to the place that you believe that either there is something you can do to obtain eternal life, or there is something you can do to obtain more of God’s favor.
One of the great dangers of being a Christian in 21st century America is that we have become stale to the truth of the Gospel.
ILLUSTRATION: There is probably a commonality on the counters of most people here today.
ILLUSTRATION: There is probably a commonality on the counters of most people here today.
Somewhere on your counter sits a bag.
Inside of the bag is the remnants of a loaf of bread.
Some time ago you purchased that loaf of bread because you needed it to make sandwiches or toast.
And when you opened that bag you did the same thing we all do, you unwind it.
Then you reach inside… but you don’t grab that first slice in the bag.
No you perfect your finger gymnastics to push that first piece out of the way and grab the second.
Why, because no person in their right might wants the heel!
This act went on numerous times over the next couple of weeks
Until now you have reached the other side.
Now, sitting inside of that bag on your counter are the two ends of that loaf of bread.
Rather than throwing them away, we leave them on the counter, believing that something could happen in our life that would make things just bad enough that we might actually eat them!
But you don’t.
And after a few more weeks pass by, you finally take a finally look at that bag of bread.
And now it has changed.
There is something gray and green growing on it.
It’s hard and dried out.
It’s stale… so you throw it in the garbage and continue the process with your next loaf of bread.
APPLICATION: For so many Christians, that is exactly where they are when it comes to the Gospel.
APPLICATION: For so many Christians, that is exactly where they are when it comes to the Gospel.
They’ve heard it countless times.
It’s like every time they walk in the church the story of the Gospel is sitting there on counter of the pulpit.
The preacher stands and preaches about it every week it feels like.
The Gospel is a piece of the story, but we have moved past that.
We are mature Christians now and we are focusing our attention on things further down the line.
Like our appearance of godliness that we talked about last week.
We are not captivated by the Gospel… we don’t even give it a second thought.
We have lost our “awe” of God and what he has done.
We have become stale and hard to the Gospel.
EXPLANATION: That is exactly where these Galatians believers had found themselves.
EXPLANATION: That is exactly where these Galatians believers had found themselves.
And that is why Paul reminds them, “Your reception of the Gospel is a miracle… the most powerful miracle that has ever happened.”
APPLICATION: Friend, have you become stale and hard to the Gospel?
APPLICATION: Friend, have you become stale and hard to the Gospel?
You would never admit to being that way, but in your heart does the Gospel of Christ do anything in you?
Do you recognize just how incredible this powerful miracle of salvation is?
EXPLANATION: Paul recognized that these Galatian believers struggle stemmed from a gross undervalue of just how miraculous there salvation was.
EXPLANATION: Paul recognized that these Galatian believers struggle stemmed from a gross undervalue of just how miraculous there salvation was.
So to help them better understand, Paul pulls from the pinnacle of miracles that they would know to better give a comparison of just how miraculous their gift of salvation is.
V.6, A MIRACULOUS EXAMPLE
V.6, A MIRACULOUS EXAMPLE
Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.
EXPLANATION: The Jewish religious leaders held to Moses as the foundation of their faith.
EXPLANATION: The Jewish religious leaders held to Moses as the foundation of their faith.
It was Moses who led the children of Israel out of Egypt.
It was at his hand through the power of God that 10 plagues were rained down upon Pharaoh and Israel’s captors.
It was Moses who stretched out his rod over the red sea and the waters parted.
And it was Moses who stretched it back out on the other side and they fell back upon Pharaoh’s army.
And it was Moses who was on Mount Sinai for 40 days receiving the 10 commandments from the Lord.
And it was Moses who recorded those OT Laws.
Yes Moses was unquestionably a hero of the faith and a pillar for the Word of God.
But if Moses was a pillar, Abraham was the foundation from which Moses came.
Just a few verses later in Galatians 3:17
And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect.
It was 430 years before Moses would receive the commandments from God that Abraham received the promise of God.
Next week, we will dive deeper into that promise, Lord willing.
But we see that Abraham predated the law!
Abraham was declared righteous, not by a law that didn’t yet exist, but by faith!
Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.
But here is the question, what did Abraham believe God for?
To understand, we have to go back to what happened back in the book of Genesis.
In Genesis 12, God came to Abraham and told him Genesis 12:1-3
Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee:
And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:
And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
Abraham was 75 years old and Sarah 65 years old when God made this promise to Abraham.
Abraham had to be thinking, “ok Lord, if you are going to do this, you better get going because I’m not getting any younger.”
Time passes, and no child.
We reach chapter 15 and God speaks to Abraham again and tells him he is going to have a child.
And Genesis 15:6
And he believed in the Lord; and he counted it to him for righteousness.
“Ok God, I believe you… It seems unlikely that this could happen, but I believe you.”
We move forward once again and reach chapter 17, and now Abraham is 99 years old and Sarah is 89 years old.
And God comes once again to Abraham and tells him, Genesis 17:16
And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her: yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her.
And now Abraham is struggling with that faith he had back in chapter 15
Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear?
This was impossible… there was no way!
In fact, when Sarah heard what the angels told Abraham in the next chapter, she has a similar response to Abraham Genesis 18:12
Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, After I am waxed old shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?
“God this isn’t just unlikely anymore, this is impossible.
There is no way that this can even happen!
And what the angel responds to Abraham and Sarah is a message that rings through the pages of Scripture all the way here to the book of Galatians
Is any thing too hard for the Lord? At the time appointed I will return unto thee, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.
Is anything too hard for the powerful, miraculous hand of God?”
You know what is so incredible about that amazing story?
Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness all the way back in chapter 15!
We don’t know exactly how old he was, but according to the events that would take place in chapter 16, it seems it was less than 10 years from the initial time God made the promise, which would have put him somewhere between 75 and 85 years old.
And over that next 15-25 years of waiting, they made some historically bad decisions… Like Hagar and Ishmael!
Yet even after all those years and bad decisions… God still declared Abraham righteous.
Not based on any of the works that he did… but because all the way back in chapter 15, Abraham believed God would do the impossible.
And Paul couldn’t make it any more clear for us!
And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.
How could a man be declared righteous by a law that didn’t exist!
He couldn’t… it was only by faith!
Faith in something that was impossible!
Faith in something that was a miracle.
And all nations that would come after would be blessed because they could be declared righteous the same way…THROUGH FAITH in the impossible.
What was it that was so impossible?
What was it that required a miracle?
V.10, A CURSED COMMAND
V.10, A CURSED COMMAND
EXPLANATION: Paul tells the readers in v.10
EXPLANATION: Paul tells the readers in v.10
For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.
He says that anyone who doesn’t continue in “ALL things” written in the law, they are cursed.
It’s a quote from Deuteronomy 27:26
Cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them. And all the people shall say, Amen.
APPLICATION: There are still so many that are holding onto the belief that it is their good works that are going to get them to heaven!
APPLICATION: There are still so many that are holding onto the belief that it is their good works that are going to get them to heaven!
But what is it that declares if your works are good or not?
There has to be an objective judge that can determine what is good or not.
So we have the law of God with it’s 613 commandments that tell you if you are keeping up with good works.
But the problem is, no one can stay faithful and never break any of the 613 commandments.
And if you break even one, at any time, you have failed.
For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.
For righteousness to be obtained by the law, you must “continue” in “all things”.
This means that you always keep the Law!
No, the law was not actually given so that you can have an objective judge to tell you what is good.
The law was given to show that you cannot keep what is good.
Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:
Friend, you cannot depend on your keeping of the law to obtain justification and salvation from your sins!
It’s impossible for you to keep all the law and be “good enough”
That is why Paul says that it is a curse.
It would take a miracle for someone to do something so impossible.
V.13-14, A REDEEMING PERSON
V.13-14, A REDEEMING PERSON
Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:
That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
EXPLANATION: V.10 proclaims that anyone that doesn’t continue to keep the law is cursed.
EXPLANATION: V.10 proclaims that anyone that doesn’t continue to keep the law is cursed.
It was an impossible task for anyone to keep…
No one could be good enough
As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.
They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
It was a hopeless venture… an impossible task… a cursed plan!
And that is exactly the path you were on.
But 2000 years ago, Jesus Christ did the unthinkable for you.
He accepted the curse of your sin upon himself.
But he was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: The chastisement of our peace was upon him; And with his stripes we are healed.
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, Yet he opened not his mouth: He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, So he openeth not his mouth.
Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:
He took your curse upon Himself and we nailed to that tree in your place!
For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
Suddenly that which was impossible before, was now possible.
That which required a miracle, now was supplied a miracle!
APPLICATION: And now, just as Abraham believed God and had faith in the miracle that God said He would do, you must have faith in God for the miracle of your salvation!
APPLICATION: And now, just as Abraham believed God and had faith in the miracle that God said He would do, you must have faith in God for the miracle of your salvation!
If you’ve never received that miracle, don’t put it off any longer!
Put your faith in the miracle that Christ accomplished on that cross for you!
If you have accepted that miracle, friend, have you forgotten just how much of a miracle it is?
Are you seeking to take away from the power of the miracle of salvation because you believe there is something you can do to earn more of God’s favor?
Believing that there is something special about you that will make God love you more is to take away from the power of God’s complete work on the cross.
When He died, He cried out, “It is finished”
Forgiveness is complete!
Favor is fully given
Forever you have been sealed!
Have you lost sight of the cross of Christ?
Have you failed to see Him with the crown of thorns on His head and the blood running down His face?
Have you missed the nails in His hands and in His feet?
Have you silenced the mockery He endured while He hung on that ugly cross.
And have you stopped looking into the eyes exhausted, broken, love filled eyes of that Savior Who became the curse for you?
Because friend, the miracle of that reality is so incredibly powerful!
It’s so powerful:
It’s should captivate your attention
It should radicalize your love for Him!
It should impassion your heart for His Word!
It should increase your passion for prayer!
It should induce a desire to worship!
It should motivate your heart to serve!
It should alter your mindset!
It should make Christ preeminent!
It should detour you from sin!
It should differentiate you from this world!
It should move you to action!
It should enable you to stay faithful!
It should empower you to stand!
It should embolden you to witness!
It should burden you for the Lost!
It should will you to sacrifice!
And It should mold you into His image!
That is the power of the miracle of the salvation Christ has offered to you!
CONCLUSION
CONCLUSION
Now friend, are you captivated by that miracle?
Or has it just become old news to you?
I hope this morning, you will be reawakened to the truth of the Gospel!
That your old, dry, stale religion will have a fire lit beneath it.
And you will be captivated by the miracle of your salvation like never before!